Small Business Entrepreneur Blog

I’ve decided to spend some time talking about this article by Rob Meyer because it brings an interesting perspective over the business and entrepreneurship in Africa and also because I’m from Easter Europe and there are so many things resonate the same over here.

I will start with some things about Eastern Europe, because they justify and confirm some of Rob’s ideas.

First things first, this year has marked 20 years from the political changes for most of Eastern Europe countries. I remember 20 years ago (while I was a child) that everybody thought it will take just a few years to match the Western life style. Nothing could be wrong, 20 years later, Eastern Europe has it’s own ways, and even with the European Union including almost all countries in the reagion now, the economic, human and social realities around here are different from what the Western countries have.

I also remember that 20 years ago we had virtually no competition, marketing was something from the books or not even that (because you didn’t need any). This was a good period for people that started a business or made some sort of investment in the country. I know now that the price of a TV was equal to the price of a car and not so far away from a price of a 2 rooms appartment. This made TV importers and distributors incredible rich.

I have memories from foreigners coming here and being astonished about the skills we had for repairing things. While the Western society was already into throwing things away when they broke, we could fix almost anything here. Market was so empty (and still is in some domains nowadays) that you could make a fortune by providing basic services that were part of the everyday life everywhere else.

And still, most media and public perception from the Western Europe was not focused on showing off the opportunities and developments but more into social problems, scandals and negative happenings.In the business area, most foreigners had a difficult time understanding and accommodating to completely different business environment, sometimes with “irrational” rules and behaviors.

Being an East European I know that many astonishing things have happen here despite the negative perception from above. Market has grown becoming an important distribution point, workforce was available and I believe nowadays Eastern Europe ads to the overall Europe economic power. The winners? People, businesses and entrepreneurs that found opportunities in this very different market and turned things into their favour. But isn’t this the very definition of entrepreneurship?

Africa as a 900 million market

Perceptions about Africa go mostly in the same ways as perceptions about Eastern Europe, and because I lived my own experience here I tend to agree and think that Rob’s perceptions and points of view are both interesting and true. The article evolves around the statements found in a book: “Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think.” writen by Vijay Mahajan. Here are some statements that should give you some thoughts and questions:

“If Africa were a single country, it would have had $978 billion in total gross nation income in 2006. This places it ahead of Brazil, Russia and India—and 12 countries in Africa are wealthier than China in per capita income”

“African youth are now being born into a media-rich culture. Though the West might still have visions of tribal huts on the savannah, separated from civilization, the reality is far from that. Africa is not a “media dark continent,” Mahajan says. From a flourishing Nollywood movie industry in Nigeria to a classic Arabic movie industry in Egypt to numerous satellite radio and TV channels to mobile phones to broadband and internet, media is exploding on the continent.”

“And just like consumers in other developing countries, they want the best for their children, better than what they had,” he says. “They need food, clothing, soap and shelter, and desire cell phones, medicine, cosmetics, music, television, toys, computers and movies. While there are challenges,entrepreneurs and business leaders are finding opportunities in almost every industry and every country across the continent.”

You should head over to the original article – it does an excellent lobby. And from my own perspective, what if Africa now can be what Eastern Europe was 20 years ago, a sea of un-exploied and un-explorred business and entrepreneurship opportunities?